28/01/2026
HOW OPEN ARE YOU? | “Jesus tells us a very simple story today. A farmer goes out to sow seeds. Some fall on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, and some on good soil.
It is a familiar parable. But the real question is not about the seed. The seed is always good.
The real question is: What kind of soil am I?
On this feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, this question becomes even more meaningful. For St. Thomas was a man deeply in love with the Word of God — not only to study it, but to receive it, to let it take root in his heart, and to allow it to shape his entire life.
Here are three reflections.
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1. The problem is not the Word. The problem is the heart.
The seed is the Word of God. It is always powerful. Always alive. Always capable of transforming a life.
But sometimes, the Word cannot enter us.
Like the path — too hard.
Like the rocky ground — too shallow.
Like the thorny soil — too crowded.
Many times we say, “I don’t feel anything when I hear the Gospel.”
But maybe the issue is not that God is silent. Maybe our hearts have become unavailable.
Too busy.
Too distracted.
Too preoccupied.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us something very important here. He was one of the greatest minds in the Church — yet before he wrote, before he taught, before he argued theology, he would kneel in prayer before the crucifix.
Because he knew: the Word of God is not first understood by the mind, but received by the heart.
A closed heart cannot receive even the best seed.
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2. What chokes the Word in us?
Jesus is very honest. He names the thorns: worries of the world, lure of riches, desire for other things.
These are very modern problems.
We are worried. We are chasing many things. We are always occupied.
Not bad things — but too many things.
And slowly, the Word of God gets less space in our life.
Not because we reject it, but because we have no more room for it.
The tragedy is not that we hate God.
The tragedy is that we are too full of everything else.
St. Thomas spent his life studying, reading, writing thousands of pages. Yet near the end of his life, after a profound experience of God in prayer, he said: “All that I have written seems to me like straw.”
Why? Because he realized that God is not fully grasped by study alone, but by a heart that makes space for Him.
Knowledge without space for God becomes noise. Learning without prayer becomes pride.
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3. Good soil is not perfect soil. It is receptive soil.
Notice: Jesus does not describe the good soil as extraordinary. Only as open.
It receives.
It allows the seed to stay.
It gives it time to grow.
That is all God needs from us — not brilliance, not talent, not perfection.
Just a heart that says: “Lord, You are welcome here.”
This is the secret of St. Thomas Aquinas. His greatness did not come from his intelligence alone. It came from his humility before God.
And when that happens, the harvest is unbelievable: thirty, sixty, a hundredfold.
One small Word, welcomed sincerely, can change an entire life.
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Today, on the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, Jesus is not asking us: How much do you know?
He is asking us: How open are you?
Because the seed is already in your hands.
The question is:
What kind of soil will you be?”
— Cebu Archbishop Alberto “Abet” Uy
Maymay sa Magbalantay | 28 January 2026
